What went wrong with the techno culture?

Post-mortem is never a pleasant thing and opening an article with a negative notion is also not the best thing to do, so I will start by announcing that today is a very nice day outside. It’s Saturday and many are already emailing, messaging and calling their friends. Tonight is going to be a pretty big rave – the one everyone was talking about. Why is everyone so excited? Because a celebrity DJs from UK, Germany and US are coming to play. Their names were written in big letters, followed by some smaller acts, followed by local celebrities and MCs.

“They are not from around here so they must be good!”

Of course there is nothing wrong in recognizing and admiring talent and showmanship. The problem is that the above mentioned have a talent for commercial sound assisted by a very big ego which radiates through their attitude as they pretend to be making music. We’ve all seen DJs tweaking a few dead knobs while making that intense orgasmic face as they get into the way too long and totally expected breakdown.

Can’t you see what’s happening? Two thousand people will come to a big venue; they will pay $50-$80 and see a guy do an ‘air guitar’ performance with his decks and mixers.

Lisa is in the office today, she is already thinking about what to wear. Creative expression is an important part of techno culture so let’s hope she picks something nice. She doesn’t really know who Kraftwerk are and believes Autechre is an extinct pre-historic bird but raves are so much fun and everyone is so friendly. And why is everyone so friendly at raves? Oh let’s not waste any more keystrokes on that subject, it’s not even funny. Let’s fast forward to “the long line”…

Now, would you look at that. Purple, yellow, pink, blue, red, orange – wow – a rainbow of colours, pacifiers, glowsticks, stickers and funky hair styles. All hundred meters of the line with little friend-groups. They can hear the bass inside and are excited about the effect of the drug they just took and waiting for it to kick in. So you can see them tap and hop and twitch. An occasional early bird is already wide-eyed, chewing hard and biting their lips. Street bums and drunks looking puzzled, tough party boys in muscle cars yelling out offensive remarks – yet ravers don’t care – peace, love…

Questions

When? When and how exactly did things turn this way? How come a real technofile feels awkward standing in a line like this? What has peace and love got to do with techno? Why are they all wearing kitsch? Why in the world do we associate ravers with homosexuals? Techno should transcend sexual orientation, not accentuate it. Why are those who cannot stand electronic music lining up, dressed as clowns, pumped up with light drugs? Why are we listening to commercial sound? Why is techno in TV ads for vacuum cleaners? Why is it all so cheesey?

And the main one is:

Why was techno such a fertile platform for all these parasitic deviations?

Perhaps it’s time to form a new and pure techno culture, where inspiration for music and art comes from intelligence, futurism, innovation, science and technology and do our best to protect it.

“Overall, [ The-Novus-Arcadia ‘s] an immensely enjoyable experience, and it could well become a piece of electronic art that may be a required listen in the near future.” – Muse’s Muse , 7/31/2007 – Listen to it now.

Dan Petrovic, the managing director of DEJAN, is Australia’s best-known name in the field of search engine optimisation. Dan is a web author, innovator and a highly regarded search industry event speaker. In addition to industry leadership, Dan also maintains an active academic life as an adjunct lecturer and the chairman of the Industry Advisory Board for the School of Marketing at Griffith University.

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